junctionist
Senior Member
It's good to hear that our downtown isn't that congested. Maybe with tolls we can get the traffic levels so low that bike lanes or pedestrianization of large streets downtown would actually be feasible.
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What Gridlock?
- Thread starter Glen
- Start date
scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
Traffic is worse around and beyond the 401 because there's so very few roads to take. No grid other than concessions every 2km = no route options.
Glen
Senior Member
PukeGreen
Active Member
The problem is that without incentives other than gridlock to get people out of their cars, better roads simply lead more people to say "Hey, traffic isn't that bad after all" and decide that driving is the best way to get where they're going. Ten or twenty thousand people come to that same conclusion and guess what... traffic is bad again. Perpetually widening roads or building new ones is pointless, because every time you do that more people decide to drive more often or from further distances, which quickly negates any benefit of the road improvements. We might as well flush that money down the toilet.
With that in mind, things like tolls or more expensive parking start to make more sense; then we can have less gridlocked streets that stay that way. If even a fraction of the money that is invested into roads and highways every year was put into transit was added to the income from the tolls and parking fees, then the transit system would eventually become decent enough that people actually wouldn't mind taking it. Or so the theory goes...
With that in mind, things like tolls or more expensive parking start to make more sense; then we can have less gridlocked streets that stay that way. If even a fraction of the money that is invested into roads and highways every year was put into transit was added to the income from the tolls and parking fees, then the transit system would eventually become decent enough that people actually wouldn't mind taking it. Or so the theory goes...
TKTKTK
Senior Member
Why not just legislate that all new jobs are to be created in the 905, and the only people who are allowed to own and make use of cars downtown are the upper classes? Seems like it'll achieve the same result.
ITcomputer
Active Member
nfitz
Superstar
Frankly the worst congestion I ever encounter is in 905, or the fringes of 416 - some of the worst in 416 has been along the alignment of the new Spadina subway extension.
Though part of this is even when I am working, I seldom take a car right into downtown, it's generally cheaper and just as quick (or quicker) to jump on the subway somewhere. Those alternatives just don't exist out in the suburbs (though the next time I have a meeting at Steeles/Keele that ends mid/late afternoon, I might well be tempted to take the express bus from Downsview and walk from York)!
Though part of this is even when I am working, I seldom take a car right into downtown, it's generally cheaper and just as quick (or quicker) to jump on the subway somewhere. Those alternatives just don't exist out in the suburbs (though the next time I have a meeting at Steeles/Keele that ends mid/late afternoon, I might well be tempted to take the express bus from Downsview and walk from York)!
Chuck
Senior Member
There is so little congestion downtown compared to the suburbs, that once you're south of Eglinton, driving is almost always quicker than taking the subway, even when both ends of the trip are near a subway station. Transit does cost less though.